Welcome to the Fifteen Minute Novel. Each morning I spend fifteen minutes writing on a singular story line. Each morning starts with the last line of the previous day. The goal is to get a (very) rough draft out of the simple story idea and to avoid letting the story idea languish in limbo forever, actually writing it out. This is the third year I have done this writing experiment and each year I learn just a little bit about myself and the way I write as well as creating a framework for the story. But without further ado…
Day 43: She moved to the sink to brush her teeth and decided she felt nothing.
She moved to the sink to brush her teeth and decided she felt nothing. Gwen frowned at the thought of that. Shouldn’t she feel something? She rinsed the toothpaste out of her mouth and set the brush to the side of the sink. There was no holder so she made certain to place it bristles side ip next to the travel sized tube of toothpaste.
She didn’t like Sharron and couldn’t really pretend she did. She never really hated Sharron even though her insistence on making sure that everything they did in public reflected the image she wished to project instead of reality was often exasperating. Gen frowned at herself in the mirror, concerned that she felt nothing. Shouldn’t she feel relief, or anger? Disappointment?
She wasn’t even sure what she should be feeling if she did manage to feel something. Outside of the public pretense Sharron tried to have little to do with her. As she grew older and more self-sufficient, Sharron only attended public events as required, graduation had been the last one but before then it had been a full two years since Sharron attended anything. There was nothing that needed parental recognition.
The dress was the biggest interaction they had since she started high school. The thought of the dress still annoyed Gwen. She wanted to do the grand gesture of ignoring Toby and Lisa at the dance. Of showing that she was fine. Gwen smiled at her own reflection. In a way it was as much a pretense as anything Sharron did. Gwen turned away from the mirror, suddenly amused that Sharron had spoiled Gwen’s attempt at public pretense.
“You would have thought she’d applaud,” Gwen told herself as she gathered her dirty travel clothes and left the bathroom. Seeing no hamper for dirty clothes, she folded them and placed them on he floor next to her open suitcase. “I guess she couldn’t see past her rule about not attending the dance without an escort rule,” Gwen decided.
She yawned hugely and her eyes shifted from the bed to the door and back again. Her eyes were gritty and feeling that sleep might be a better option, Gwen turned out the light and went to the bed. She pulled back the covers and climbed inside. There was still daylight seeping in through the windows. It was earlier here than at home.
‘Maybe that’s why I feel so tired,’ she thought. Gwen pulled the covers up to her chin and lay on her back watching the shadows shift about on the ceiling. There was too much movement for them to be still. She wondered if anyone knew she was gone. Her exodus from Westport was so quick that she didn’t know if anyone but her father knew it had been done.
As Gwen felt her eyes droop closed, she wondered how long it would take anyone to notice and what their reaction would be when they did. ‘If Dad and Sharron are getting divorced then everyone might think that was the reason I left.’ Gwen closed her eyes.
Ten til Midnight 